AMUCO, UCM join hands in paying tributes to June 18 martyrs as all roads lead to Kekrupat Collective voice raised to protect unity and integrity
IMPHAL, Jun 18 : All roads led to Kekrupat as thousands of people from different parts of the State made their way to the sacred site to pay their homage and respect to the 18 souls who laid down their lives to protect the territorial integrity of the day.....
Poison in your food ? Urea, DAP in rice ?
IMPHAL, Jun 18 : Super fine rice shipped in by Food Corporation of India and supplied to the public at subsidised rate by Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (CAF&PD) Department is found mixed with certain substances which look like Urea or DAP.....
Dimapur bandh ends
DIMAPUR, Jun 18 : The otherwise noisy and chaotic commercial hub of Nagaland looked deserted today as all the roaring business establish-ments came to a grinding halt following the dawn to dusk bandh imposed by Action Committee Against Unabated Taxation (.....
UNC rolls up sleeves for intense stir
IMPHAL, June 18: United Naga Council (UNC) has pledged to intensify its stand with a series of agitation soon against the alleged communal policies of Manipur Government and communal forces in Manipur valley. However, the UNC did not spell out the nature .....
Mercury soars
IMPHAL, Jun 18: According to data collected from weather stations installed in different parts of the State, maximum average temperature at Imphal recorded 34 degree Celsius at Imphal valley during the past 5 days. Moreh recorded maximum temperature of.....
Jiri sizzles at 38 degree Celsius
JIRIBAM, Jun 18: with the heat wave sweeping across Jiribam sub-division for the last few days showing no signs of abetting the normally vacant Jiribam community health centre has been transformed into a crammed health facility. The sub-divisional head.....
House okays five demands
IMPHAL, Jun 18: The fifth session of the ongoing 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly today passed five demands which included Rs 64,81,07,000 for Land Revenue, stamp & Registration, and District Administration; Power - Rs 666,83,96,000; Youth Affairs and Sp.....
Question Hour At The Assembly Edn Minister concedes SSA school buildings lapses
IMPHAL, Jun 18: Education Minister M Okendro has conceded that school buildings constructed under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) were not at all satisfactory while some guardians still continue to be members of School Management Development Committees (SMDC).....
CM dismisses Oppn allegation
IMPHAL, Jun 18: Dismissing allegation of misuse of fund sanctioned for National School Safety Programme by Relief and Disaster Management Department, Chief Minister O Ibobi asserted there is no question of misuse of fund nor any meaning in ordering any en.....
Nitish faces trust vote today
PATNA, Jun 18: After the Janata Dal-United parted ways with ally the Bharatiya Janata Party, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will seek a trust vote on Wednesday at a special session of Bihar assembly to prove his majority, which he is expected to muster witho.....
AR fetes
IMPHAL, Jun 18: IG AR (South) Maj Gen Rajiv Chopra today felicitated students of Assam Rifles Senior Secondary School who scored highest marks in the CBSE Exams of class X and XII at 9 Sector Hqs, Keithelmanbi. Maj Gen Rajiv Chopra and his better half.....
Drivers helped
IMPHAL, Jun 18: Surface Transport, Eco and Environment Society, Nagaland and the All Manipur Road Transport and Motor Workers’ Union have donated edible items to drivers, transporters and passengers stranded at Khuzuma, Nagaland on account of the 48 hou.....
SSA imbroglio
IMPHAL, Jun 18: The All Manipur School Management and Development Committee Association has alleged that unwanted political interference in collusion with ‘unfit’ bureaucrats has derailed SSA programme/RTE Act in the State. “Political interferenc.....
KNF (N) rejects
IMPHAL, Jun 18: Rejecting police claim that Letginhao Haokip alias Abin alias Hegin alias Haopu, arrested recently, belongs to KNF (N) organisation as unfounded and misleading, the armed organisation branded the individual as an imposter. A KNF (N) sta.....
Stir called off
IMPHAL, Jun 18: Work Charge and Muster Roll employees of Minor Irrigation Department who have been agitating since June 10 demanding payment of their pending salaries have agreed to call off their agitation temporarily after they came to an understanding .....
The great June 18 and the great 18 souls
Law enforcers or concerned authorities cannot book anyone as an accused for any kind of unlawful act, most particularly, a criminal one until an FIR (First Investigation Report) is lodged by the police or law enforcing agency. The June 18 incident of 2001.....
Open letter to all the Hon’ble Members of the Hill Area Committee
Article 371(C) of the Indian Constitution enshrined to constitute Hill Areas Committee within the Manipur Legislative Assembly without which there can be no Manipur Legislative Assembly and that in exercise of the power conferred by Article 371(C), the t.....
From communal land ownership to private landlordism
In India and elsewhere, land as been the bone of contention particularly for groups and communities who are classified as tribes (as in the case of India) and indigenous, natives across the globe. The problem of land alienation has been one of the most se.....
Messing with Ramlal Paul HSS Modern day Tughlaqs
Quixotic and Tughlaqnesque. This should about sum up the decision of the Government to turn Ramlal Paul Higher Secondary School to an all girls institution to accommodate the students who could not secure admission at TG Higher Secondary School. Comes clo.....
Blood donated as tribute to June 18, 2001 martyrs
IMPHAL, Jun 18: In all 42 individuals from different walks of life donated blood as Voluntary Help Unit Committee (VHUC), RIMS Hospital commemorated the '13th blood donation camp - A Tribute to the Martyrs of 18th June 2001' at RIMS Hospital today. The.....
Sunday Sentiments
By : Urmila Chanam
Love thy neighbour
Hardly a week old in the new neighbourhood and still a long way to unload all the cartons of Movers and Packers, my house was a mess. What can I tell you of the feeling of setting up your entire kitchen, refrigerator and the pantry, all set to make yourself a big ‘house warming’ meal only to realise that you cannot find the lighter! Because no one smokes in your family, you don’t have a match box either. You open cartons after cartons fishing for the yellow- coloured gas lighter, a little impatient now. Few hours down the line after the meal you cannot remember where you kept your broom or your curtain rings. It is not an exaggeration to tell you that it actually takes a month or two to settle down in a new house.
This is my memory of when I moved to my present apartment in the suburbs of Bangalore. It’s another thing to set up your house and quiet another to set your life in the new neighbourhood especially with the people you call your ‘neighbours’. I thought I would begin to take stroll in the neighbourhood just to get acquainted to my new neighbours. The township with seven towers of four –storied buildings clustered together is surrounded by lush green gardens and a well paved jogger’s trail all around its periphery. There is a park and a swimming pool. I had everything, I just needed to get to know people. If I stuck around the block where I lived, I would bump into my neighbours and perhaps get to know few of them.
But destiny had other plans.
There was no electricity. I sat there squatting on the bathroom floor washing clothes. The pounding at my front door appeared as if it could not wait. With soap lather still on my hands and my long pant rolled at my knees I partially opened my door. I found a group of house wives, all in their night clothes, looking as if they had an agenda .
“Yes, can I help you?,” I offered. I recognized one of them, a tall woman who braided her long hair, wore sindoor and glass bangles. I had an instant dislike for her high pitched nagging tone when she spoke to me, “Main apsey jhagdah karney nahein ayi hun, bus bath karma hai. Apke kutte ne pura lift aur corridor gunda kar diya hai. Yahan pe aisa nahein chullega. (I haven’t come here to argue with you, I just need to talk to you. Your dog has littered the lift and corridor. If you want to live here, all this would have to stop)”.
I was thinking if there was a possibility that my dog, a one year old Labrador, could have done that till it dawned on me that she was confined to just my apartment and stepped out for a stroll just with me. I was certain Hazel had done no such thing. I told the group of women who seemed to have ‘ganged up’ against me that I was certain my dog had not done this. I thought that was the end of the matter. Two women then began what I call ‘oral diarrhoea’ – rare instances where you find people talk with no break. I was losing my patience fast, more so because I was out numbered and no one was willing to listen to my clarifications. They had ganged up against me alright.
I had to put my foot down. I had to be firm. “Listen, it’s not my dog who has littered the place. I will make sure she doesn’t do it and I will not take the lift when I take her out for a stroll,” I tried negotiating in a civilised manner. They kept standing at my door and blocking my way to close it. I guess, they weren’t done with me yet. So I tried one last time, for the sake of my upbringing. “Can we end this conversation here? I have some work.” This turned out to be the last straw for them. It had evidently pinched them that I had not ended up as upset as they would have liked to see me.
One of them turned nasty and started yelling. I gave up. There was no point in being nice. I closed the door on their nosy faces. They had done a good job of upsetting me.
Few years back after my graduation I was in Kolkatta during my vacation at my relatives place. One day while all of them were away, I sat down to cook a hearty meal for dinner time. I was pounding garlic and ginger in the mortar and pestle. The door bell disrupted my cooking. Five men looked mighty unpleased informed me that one of them nearly fell down in the wet bathroom floor , one had palpitations, one lost a 1 crore deal in business and the other had an argument with his newly wed wife- all because of the sound I created with my pounding in the small cup-size mortar and pestle. How naïve I had been, to apologize profusely to them and assuring it would not be repeated again.
So what do I do with Mrs Upadhya’s hoarse, detestable condemnations that she rains every day on her domestic help early morning? The thin wall that separates my space from hers does nothing to give me peace that I deserve at that time of the day. Or what do I do now that a coconut has fallen from a tree and cracked my windshield? If the same had happened to the women at my door, they would have chased the person responsible all the way to hell.
I have heard about loving our neighbours and how important that is. In the present context, however, if an irate and annoying neighbour knocks at my door, or argues with me in the garage, wants my dog out of the lift , and I stop myself from boxing him in his nose, that to me, amounts to ‘loving thy neighbour.’
The writer is a humanitarian, campaigner and journalist with World Pulse & Voices for Human Rights and she can be reached at - urmila.chanam@gmail.com
bomcha
Refreshing.A reality faced often by many.Reminds me of my own location changes.All the best.
Dipankar Dey
Nice one again. I think I know this story from somewhere. Sounds so familiar, with social situations nowadays.
Dipankar Dey
Nice once again. I think I know this story from somewhere. Sounds so familiar, with social situations nowadays.
